DATpolitics

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“[DATpolitics] bop around and shout and let the playful sense of fun take over…”-PITCHFORK
“…songs so bright, so immediate, and so weird that they’re virtually fluorescent.” -ALL MUSIC GUIDE
“The French laptop trio DATpolitics reimagine punk rock as music created by and for hyperactive small children.” -ASSOCIATED PRESS
“…glitch-inflected IDM…” -BILLBOARD.COM

France’s favorite three-piece chiptune pioneers DATpolitics have bounced around clubs and festivals around the world with the likes of Kraftwerk, Architecture in Helsinki, YACHT, and Jagga Jazzist. Initially conceived as a production team when its members created the art platform Skipp, a label and graphic design project, the laptop trio have since carved out a distinctively eccentric, but unique presence in the realm of electronic art-pop. DATpolitics are known for their prolific work which has seen them release eight studio albums including their latest, Mad Kit, via record label Chicks on Speed. The group’s signature sound of highly catchy e-pop hooks helped them secure a spot on “The Itunes Essentials” compilation which included tracks by artists at the forefront of France’s electro movement including heavyweights Daft Punk, Justice and Busy P. The group has also received several honorific mentions at ARS Electronica; a festival celebrating art and technology and Europe’s foremost competition in the cyberarts.

DATpolitics’ latest release, Mad Kit, delivers a sustained high-energy blast of bubblegum glitch-pop that is shamelessly synthetic but vivid, vital and exhilarating. The straight beat propulsion gloriously hits audienes with catchy, melodic and eminently danceable tunes. The surreal electronic wonderland that is Mad Kit is heavily pixellated with pop exuberance highlighted tracks like the joyous laptop-crunching melodicism of ‘Bad Dream Machine’ which sets an early benchmark, sounding frivolous and more than faintly ridiculous, but never resorting to kitsch or slapstick tendencies. Sonically-delving deeper, ‘Wish Ya’ intentionally dabbles with hipster electro-house and bitstreams the highly stylistic fad. The album slots nicely into the comparatively sensible techno-centric pop song and AM/FM mix of ‘Step Back’ which seems to further organize the unruly, DSP-munching Datpolitics sound. The album is an express shot of playful, booty- shaking synth-pop ripe with digitalized vocals, distorted breaks and electric frequencies hyperactive but altogether structurally complex, quirky, and sharpened to an expert taste of absurdly infectious fun.